FORESTPACK

Display

Overview

This rollout allows the user to define different levels of visualization for viewport and render modes.

In this section:

Interface

Display

Mesh/Adaptative/Proxy

These options allows Max to display the items using the original geometry or a proxy (Planes, Pyramid, Box, Thin Box, Plant). For proxy objects, it's possible to adjust the transparency and display them in wireframe mode.

The Adaptative option, automatically switches the display mode when the number of faces exceeds the specified value.

Points Cloud

This is an ultra-fast view mode which lets you to see a 3D preview of plants on Viewport. Some of its features are:

Adjustable density of points, both to the local object of global to all Forest objects.

Color by ID or from Material. Forest gets the material color from the Diffuse slot.

See Random Tint colors in real-time.

Fake shading effect, to enhance 3D look. Adjust it using the Shade slider.

Display

Selects the size of points-cloud dot. Choices are small and large. This is a global setting that affects all Max scenes.

Max Items

Defines the maximum number of items drawn on screen. This is an approximated value, Forest adjusts the density of the distribution to not exceed this limit.

Manual Update

Set the update mode of the selected Forest object: automatic or manual (clicking the Update button).

Disable Object

When enabled the object is disabled in the viewports and the render.

Freeze All

This option allows you to Freeze ALL Forest objects in the scene, except before rendering a frame. It is useful to reduce the load on 3D Studio when there are a lot of objects.

Render

Mesh/Adaptative/Proxy

These options allows Max to render the items using the original geometry or a proxy (Planes, Pyramid, Box, Thin Box, Plant).

Simplification Level

With "Simplification Level" we can reduce the number of items created by the plugin. With the 0 value, all trees are built, and with 1,2, etc., the number of trees is reduced progressively.

Normally, we leave the simplification level to 0 for normal render. Higher values are used to quickly reduce the final density of trees over the scene without changing the distribution map parameters.

Render Mode

This parameter defines the behaviour of Forest when it creates the elements for rendering. The possible values are "Automatic" and "Meshes".

In "Automatic" mode, the plugin uses all capabilities of the renderer to get the best results in complex scenes, creating automatically instances, meshes or proxies according to the type of objects defined in the Geometry rollout. Currently, this mode is used only in Mental Ray and VRay.

In "Meshes" mode, Forest creates a single mesh containing all trees. This mode may useful, as instance, if you want to create a Forest object that uses another Forest as tree sample (this must use "Meshes" mode to work with MR/VRay).

Max Items / Max Faces

Limits the maximum number of items or mesh's faces created by the plugin. The default value is 500,000 objects and 5 million faces. When this limit is reached, the plugin builds an "F" icon instead of trees, and the Forest Stats window shows a warning message.

Note: The "Max Faces" value is ignored in Mental Ray / VRay and "Automatic" mode, since these renderers are not limited by the number of faces when working on this mode.

Hide Custom Objects before rendering

If this option is on, the plugin hides from the render the objects assigned in the Geometry->Custom Object rollout. Use it to avoid rendering the high-poly meshes, proxies and other objects that are used only as source geometry for Forest.